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Green Jellÿ is an American comedy Heavy Metal/Punk Rock group. Originally named Green Jello, the band changed its name due to legal pressure from the owners of the Jell-O trademark, Kraft Foods, who claimed that it was an infringement on their trademark. Despite the spelling difference, the new name and the old are pronounced identically.
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The origin of Jello
Green Jello was formed by Bill Manspeaker (aka Moronic Dictator) and Joe Cannizzaro (aka Dunderhead) in 1981 in Kenmore, NY. They began the band with the idea of starting "The World's Worst Band". The name was chosen because lime-flavored Jell-O was widely regarded as the worst Jell-O flavor, and Bill thought the name reflected their band's talents. Barely able to play an instrument, Bill and Joe enlisted some friends and began playing punk shows around New York, with the intention of acting crazy onstage. The band was so technically inept that Joe (then playing bass) had to color-code his bass so that songs could be learned by color, such as "red, green, blue, blue, green," etc.
In 1984, Green Jello released their debut album Let It Be on their own label, American Jello Parti Productions, Inc. Recorded in Bill's bedroom, the album featured the theme song "Green Jello Sucks", as well as early songs "I've Got Poo-Poo On My Shoe" (later "Shitman"), "House me Teenage Rave", "Hill, Hill", and "I'll Buy You Any Major Appliance You Want Baby, Ooo Ooo". The album was limited to a release of 500, and was only released locally.
The band began to get more and more outrageous onstage, eventually involving fake torture, whipping and women. Often the band would play new songs, so that the audience wouldn't know how bad they were messing up. Crazy stage names were adopted, multiple members joined, and in 1987 Green Jello appeared on the TV show The Gong Show. Trying hard to sound bad, the band was "gonged" quickly, but had achieved its goal of national TV exposure.
Road to success
In 1988, Bill and the band met GWAR, who encouraged Green Jello to use onstage costumes and props. GWAR showed Bill and the boys how to make the foam, papier maché and foam rubber suits which became their trademark. With characters such as "Shitman" (a giant, walking corn-filled poop monster), "Cowgod", "Rock n Roll Pumpkin", and "Toucan Son of Sam", the band's live show became an over-the-top adventure in absurdity, now consisting of 14 members.
In 1989, Green Jello released its second album, Triple Live Mother Goose at Budokan, on February 29th Records. It featured a much more defined sound, as well as far better production and songwriting. They began picking up steam and decided to relocate from the Buffalo area to Hollywood, CA in 1990. The band began to tighten up musically, enlisting drummer Danny Carey (later in Tool), as well as guitarists Steven Shenar (Sven Seven) and C.J. Buscaglia (Jesus Quisp), along with bassist Rootin' Bloomquist. By this time the band had 4 vocalists, including Bill Manspeaker (Moronic Dictator, Shitman, Marshall "Duh" Staxxx), Joe Cannizzaro (Dunderhead), Gary Helsinger (Hotsy Menshot, Piñata Head), and Greg Raynard (Reason Clean, Toucan Son of Sam). The band also had two female backup singers/floor tom drummers, Kim O'Donnell (Sadistica), and Caroline Jester (Jella Tin). Kim O'Donnell also designed and created all the artwork, covers, comics, and logos for the band.
Video only?
In 1991, the band was signed by indie label ZOO Entertainment. Because of Green Jello's strong visual presence, the band opted to be the "World's First Video Only Band" and released its 3rd album, Cereal Killer, on longform video only. Consisting of music videos for each song, as well as a behind-the-scenes feature, the video album quickly became an underground hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Due to overwhelming demand, the band released the EP Green Jello SUXX in 1991, consisting of four songs from the Cereal Killer video album. Eventually in 1992, the band re-signed with ZOO Entertainment and released the full audio album Cereal Killer Soundtrack.
In early 1993, the single for "Three Little Pigs" was released. The video featured a claymation rendition of the classic fairy tale with modern twists, such as pot-smoking pigs, an appearance by Rambo, and a Harley Davidson-riding wolf. The video was an instant hit on MTV in the US and the UK, achieving what was then the highest debut entry ever recorded on the UK Singles Chart (#5). As a result of the "Three Little Pigs" video, the Cereal Killer Soundtrack album went gold in the US, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as platinum in Australia. Green Jello spent the better part of a year touring the US and Europe in support of the Cereal Killer Soundtrack.
Lawsuits
At the height of the band's fame, Green Jello was plagued by multiple lawsuits. In 1992, they were sued by Kraft Foods for trademark infringement. Due to the name "Jello", and moreso the band slogan "GREEN JELLO SUCKS!", the band were forced to change their name to Green Jellÿ, with an umlaut over the ÿ. This umlaut, according to the band, "changed the 'Y' sound to an 'O' sound". The band was forced to re-release their album and long form video, as well as change all merchandise.
Later in 1992, Green Jellÿ was sued by General Foods for trademark infringement of their Toucan Sam character, as well as others. The cover of Cereal Killer (both album and video) depicted "Toucan Son of Sam" the "Cereal Killer" that kills other cereal characters, such as Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Trix Rabbit, and Lucky the Leprechaun in extremely gruesome fashion. The band were forced to change the cover art (originally depicting Toucan Son of Sam), as well as place a white box in the center of the new cover which stated "Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kraft/General Foods". Aditionally, the band were forced to remove the music video for the song Cereal Killer from the long form home video release.
In 1993, Green Jellÿ was also sued by Metallica for partial use of their song "Enter Sandman" in the Green Jello song "Electric Harley House (Of Love)". The guitar solo section of the song contains a riff from "Enter Sandman", and even though the band mentions it in lyric immediately after the riff, the band were forced to remove the part from the later CD versions of Cereal Killer and pull the music video from MTV.
15 minutes?
In 1994, Green Jellÿ took what money they had left and opened Green Jelly Studios, an audio and visual production house on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The production house made music videos for other artists, as well as production pieces for TV and film. It was here that Green Jellÿ recorded and filmed their 4th album, 333. Focusing more on the musical side, and even featuring non-comedy songs, the album was a more eclectic gathering, ranging from heavy metal to alt rock to dance music. Due to problems with the record company and virtually no promotion, the album failed to make waves. The long form video for the album was never properly released, and is extremely hard to find. The album spawned the single "The Bear Song" which appears in the Jim Carrey film Dumb and Dumber, but failed to chart. 333 also featured the single "Jump", one of the more serious songs off the album, but the video received very little exposure and airtime.
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Also in 1994, the band provided the soundtrack for the Acclaim Entertainment video game Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage, based on the popular Marvel Comics characters. It featured the song "Carnage Rules" (written for the game) along with "The Mob Rules" off the album Mob Rules by Black Sabbath. Due to the state of video game music technology in 1994, the soundtrack was not recorded music, but a computerized rendition of the songs.
In 1995, Green Jellÿ released its last official single, a duet with Hulk Hogan performing Garry Glitter's classic song "Leader of the Gang", which scored them a third Top 40 hit in England. Green Jellÿ also released a cover of "Born to Be Wild" in 1996, for a movie soundtrack of the same name.
As interest fizzled out, members started leaving, and Green Jellÿ has been partially defunct since 1996. Today, Green Jellÿ still plays occasional gigs in and around Los Angeles; Bill Manspeaker is the only remaining member. As of 2001, the band has had over 115 official members.
Life after Jellÿ
- Bill Manspeaker (Moronic Dictator, Marshall "Duh" Staxx) is now the manager of Qtopia, a night club in Hollywood.
- Kim O'Donnell (Sadistica) is now a Hollywood visual effects artist, having worked for Disney and on such films as Con Air, Armageddon, X-Men 2, Spiderman 2, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Flight of the Phoenix, among others.
- Gary Helsinger (Hotsy Menshot) is now director of A&R West Coast at Universal Records.
The Tool connection
Danny Carey from Tool played drums on the album Cereal Killer and is also featured in the video for "Electric Harley House (Of Love)", among others.
Maynard James Keenan, vocalist for Tool, was also once a "member" of Green Jellÿ. On the song Three Little Pigs Maynard sang backing vocals. (He sings the falsetto "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.") Maynard is also mentioned in the song "Green Jello Sucks" in the lyric "Maynard, and Poopie - they're both insane!"
The song "Message To Harry Manback" on Tool's Ænima album was a real message left on Gary Helsinger's (Hotsy Menshot) answering machine by a friend of a friend from Italy who was stealing his roommate's belongings. "Harry Manback" is a refrence to Green Jello founder Bill Manspeaker's more-than-ample back hair. Bill and Gary were once roommates with Maynard James Keenan and Danny Carey.
Tool was signed to the same label as Green Jellÿ, the now-defunct ZOO Entertainment.
References
- Biography Official biography from the now defunct ihategreenjelly.com
- All Music Guide biography by Steve Huey
- Green Jellÿ Lyrics